People enjoying ramen noodles surrounded by piles of plastic crates (in Katsuragi-cho, Wakayama Prefecture)
A pop-up restaurant run by a fruit grower in Katsuragi-cho, Wakayama Prefecture, is drawing attention of noodle-eaters across Japan. The restaurant is named Ramen Soko, which literally means noodle warehouse in Japanese, and opens only in early spring while its 58-year-old owner, Tadao Hirayama, is free from farm work.
The grower of Japanese apricots and persimmons loves ramen noodles so much that, whenever he got a chance, he spent time in his kitchen trying to create his original ramen recipes. Then in 2011, he ended up opening his own noodle shop that opens only on Sunday from February through April at a warehouse where he usually stores fruits.
Hirayama serves nothing else but a ramen in soy-sauce-flavored pork-bone-broth soup or “Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen” and it costs you 600 yen. There are a stack of empty plastic crates against the walls and the tables and chairs are made tentatively also using the crates. People come from as far north as Hokkaido to as far south as Kyushu to enjoy the tasty ramen and the rustic ambience.
The shop opens at 11:00 a.m. and closes whenever the soup runs out. “I hope people can enjoy a relaxing lunchtime with my ramen,” he said.
(Feb. 29, 2016)